Traces: Regret
by Sanji Himura
Summary: Fic 4 of the Traces series. Tenchi and Ayeka are forced to face an emperor on the heels of their engagement. [THIS FIC HAS BEEN EDITED FOR FORMAT CORRECTIONS!]


This is fic 4 of the Traces series. Each fic of the series is best read by playing a 70's song while you read it. This fic's theme is Traces by Classics IV.

Notes:

-With four down and six to go(counting this work), I feel that the Traces series is very much in full swing. So far, my best work is Prom Night, however, the best is yet to come as some very good songs is yet to come, so I encourage you to keep checking my profile to catch the latest fic(now easy to ID)

- As you read at the top, this fic's theme is the title song of the series. There was many moments where I nearly decided to rewrite this as a Shinji/Rei evangelion fic, but concerns that I'll overload the series with eva fics has forced my hand.

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**Sanji Himura presents**

**A Tenchi Muyo fan work**

**Regret**

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June 7th 1996 

"Ayeka, you must understand that the future of the empire rests on who you marry," A man wearing regal robes told a young woman. At first glance, one might think that they were talking on a business alliance with a foreign company, but to all who was here, it wasn't the case.

"Jurai can go to hell as far as I'm concerned," Ayeka responded. "I'm not leaving Tenchi, especially that he proposed to me just yesterday."

"That little runt of a great-grandson doesn't exist to me, so you are not engaged by Jurai's eyes," the man spat out angerly. The observers, each with their own interests and safety in mind, backed off from the arguing pair.

Ayeka returned the look. One of the observers knew that look well, and it usually meant a fight. Nothing was to stand in the way of Tenchi's choice for his wife, and Ayeka knew that she would rather die than be empress with someone other than Tenchi as her husband, and everybody knew it, even the man that was arguing with her for the last few hours.

He turned away, but before he left, he told her, "I shall return in one hour."

Leaving through the open door, the man left everybody to their own devices. Letting out a breath that no one knew that they had been holding, everybody hugged the princess.

Returning the hugs, Ayeka busted into tears. She knew that the man was gathering guards for force her to leave the planet, or execute her for her treason. She had no options open to keep Tenchi. She had to leave him, plain and simple.

"I need you to do something for me Washu," Ayeka said to the short red head.

"Sure, what do you want," she responded.

"I want you to help me give Tenchi a child," she trailed off.

Washu understood her fate instantly. "Very well, let's go to my lab."

The procedure lasted 45 min. By the time that Ayeka left the lab, the man had returned with a pair of guards.

"Ayeka Misaki Jurai," the man said with authority, "you are guilty of plotting against the throne of Jurai and treason. Do you have anything to say before sentence is passed?"

"Yes, I do," Ayeka said. "You may rob me of Tenchi in body, but you'll never rob me of him in spirit, and may Tsunami grant you eternal torment for your transgressions against her champion."

If the man wasn't fuming a hour ago, he was showing it now. "You are sentenced to death," turning to his guards, he told them to carry out the sentence.

Ayeka Masaki Jurai died at 3 PM as a result of beheading. Those who discovered the body say that she was smiling.

Three years later 

The mindset of Tenchi Masaki has never been the same since that day. His day consisted of waking and eating breakfast, and he returns to his room where he kept all of the photographs that had Ayeka in them, all folded in half and laid out in no particular order, apair of tickets to a recital torn in half lay right beside that, along with some letters that the pair had left around the house for each other, and, most importantly, her engagement ring. He was still making payments on the damn thing.

After looking at his memorial, he laid in bed ignoring the world until lunch, and he sleeps off the rest of the day. Washu tried to help ease the pain by carrying a few of Ayeka's children to term, but left with the kids shortly after the last had been born, severing the link with the lab. All of Tenchi's house guests left, leaving him alone, so he was forced to have a bottle of sake around with him at all times.

He turned finally at the bane of his existence, his link to the bastard that had Ayeka killed, his life line to her, the master key. Grasping the thing in his hands, the energy that the thing gave off was a sound that he never wanted to hear again.

"So Ayeka, three years to the day, uh," he told the sword as if Ayeka was standing there. "Don't worry, I'll join you shortly." He turned the blade on himself. "Soon my love, we'll be together forever." The sword pierced him in the heart as he died at the precise moment that she died three years ago, and he was smiling with no regrets.


End file.
